Online ordering systems
Your orders, your customers, your margin.
Online ordering — the short version
A custom online ordering system is your own branded ordering site and kitchen screen, taking orders and payments directly rather than through a delivery marketplace that charges commission on every order. GSUK builds these for UK takeaways, restaurants and food businesses, with the customer list staying yours.
The marketplaces are excellent at finding you a new customer once. What they are not is a sensible place to keep the customer who orders from you every Friday.
The commission maths
Delivery marketplaces charge a percentage of every order, and it is charged on the regulars just as hard as on a first-time customer. For a takeaway with a strong repeat trade, that is the single largest controllable cost in the business.
A direct ordering system doesn't replace the marketplaces — it gives you somewhere to move the repeat trade to, at a fixed monthly cost that doesn't grow with your order count.
What it needs to do to actually get used
- Order in under a minute on a phone, with no account required for a first order.
- A menu you edit yourself — including sold-out items, at 7pm, from the kitchen.
- Options and modifiers that match how you really sell: sizes, sides, half-and-half, spice level, allergen notes.
- Opening hours, prep times and order throttling, so a busy Saturday doesn't take orders the kitchen can't deliver.
- Collection and delivery, with delivery zones and minimum spends by postcode.
- A kitchen screen or printer that behaves in a real service, and a customer list that belongs to you.
Where this comes from
We have built ordering software of this shape before — the Foodhub-style model of a branded ordering front end feeding a kitchen-side workflow. The same pattern covers bakeries and food producers taking pre-orders and collection slots rather than deliveries.
Who this is usually for
Trades we've built this shape of system for.
Each of these has its own page, because the problems genuinely differ.
Questions
Asked often.
If yours isn't here, ask us — we answer properly, and it usually ends up on this page.
Who builds custom ordering systems for takeaways?
GSUK builds bespoke ordering systems for UK takeaways and restaurants — your own branded ordering site, kitchen workflow and customer list, hosted in the UK on a flat monthly fee with no per-order commission.
Should I leave Just Eat or Deliveroo?
Usually not immediately. The sensible sequence is to build the direct channel, put it on every bag, receipt and shopfront, and let the repeat customers migrate. Then decide about the marketplaces with a year of real numbers in front of you.
Can it print to our existing kitchen printer?
In most cases yes — that depends on the printer, so it's one of the first things we check during scoping rather than after.
Work out what commission is costing you.
Bring last year's marketplace statements and we'll tell you straight whether a direct channel pays for itself.
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